Ronin
by Greywolf
Summary: Summer has come to Amity Park, but Danny's intended vacation is cut short by the arrival of strange Far Eastern ghosts looking for him. When Sam finds a lead in Japanese history, Danny travels to Japan to save his town, and learns to be a true warrior.
1. KungFu Fighting

**Author's Notes:** Yes, I know I should be updating my other fics instead of making another one. But bear with me. I just had to get these ideas out of my head and onto paper. I _will_ finish everything eventually, but until I do, just go along with it. It's not like I'm getting paid to do this... Okay, that sounded pretty snappy. And kind of petty.

Ronin

Chapter 1 - Kung-Fu Fighting

Danny strode down the street with his best friends Tucker and Sam. Just another day of stirring up trouble in their own particular way. Today, they were playing the part of mallrats. Sam was the only one with the pocket money to spend anything on, but that didn't mean Danny and Tucker couldn't loiter in the shops coveting everything they liked. Anyway, coveting was something Danny had been doing a lot of lately. Paulina, Freedom Force 2, the Rollercoaster Tycoon expansion pack, Paulina, Hellboy on DVD, that new Judas Priest album, Paulina, tickets to see Land of the Dead, that really cool new Neil Gaiman book, Paulina, one of those sweet Misfits leather jackets, tickets for the upcoming Gotham Road concert, Sam, Bruce Campbell's new book... Wait a second, did he just think Sam? No, couldn't be. Anyway... a guitar, a new model rocket kit, Sam... Wait, did he just think Sam again?

Danny hazarded a glance at his best friend from the corner of his eyes. This was starting to get to him more than he cared to admit. She was always on his mind. Last night, he had fallen asleep to the memory of when he had kissed her in his parents' lab to fool his father, which he only remembered because Sam wished it, even though it meant he had memories of two lives lived, which shouldn't be physically possible, yet clearly was happening anyway, thus creating a juxtaposition of reality and - Argh! Brain cramp! Abort! Back to the kissing thing!

Danny shook his head to clear it and thought back to that moment. He still remembered the deep blush in her cheeks and the slightly dazed, happy look on her face. Did she really enjoy that? He sure as hell did. At the time, it had seemed like a pretty damn good idea. Yes, it did serve to create a ploy that tricked his dad, but at that moment, he was thinking more about how much he enjoyed getting his first kiss from the hottie who gave him superpowers. It was only after the fact that he learned that it was actually his second kiss, but still... his thinking then did have some truth to it. He had Sam to thank for a lot. And she was very attractive. Her eyes had a sort of fire to them that-

"Danny?"

Danny immediately realized he had been staring at Sam with a dreamy expression on his face. Real smooth, Fenton.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked with a mixture of concern and suspicion.

"Uh... sure," Danny lied. "I just... sort of let my mind wander."

"Along with your eyes," Tucker added with a smirk. "You really should get a leash for those things."

Great, not only had he been staring at Sam, he was also openly checking her out? "I just have too much blood in my caffeine system." With the frequency of these slip-ups, Danny was getting pretty good at backpeddling and improv-ing. The first rule was to avoid sounding defensive. That just made the situation worse.

"Well we can fix that," Sam said with one of her devilish grins. Those usually meant one of three things. Either she had just come up with a rather ingenius plan, she was about to do something nasty to someone, she was in a thrill-seeking mood, or any combination thereof. "There's a new cafe down by the waterfront that serves a special line of teas and coffees so rich, that one sip is enough to leave you addicted to caffeine for a week. The place is called Shock Treatment."

Tucker's eyebrows went up. "Isn't that the place where the guy supposedly got a heart attack from caffeine O.D. after drinking their coffee?"

Both Danny and Tucker's faces lit up. "We're there dude!" they shouted in unison.

"It's summer again," Tucker sighed happily. "I've already got a head start on rotting my brain, but I need to make up for lost time."

**-x-**

Sam couldn't help but smile as they changed course from the mall to the waterfront, which was only a couple blocks away. Boys were so easy to please. It was a good thing too, because with summer upon them there was going to be a lot of excess free time during which she would have to keep them busy. This would hopefully be a memorable year, though. Danny was now a superhero fighting ghosts and had finally found his calling in life. He was a textbook case of unlikely hero, but she had come to admire him more than ever for it.

Sam had admitted to herself a while ago that her feelings for him had completely changed from platonic to romantic. Which was a fancy way of saying she like him as more than a friend. But "like" wasn't a strong enough word. Sam wouldn't admit it out loud, but she had admitted to herself than she was hopelessly in love with Danny. He was her knight in haz-mat armor.

Fortunately, she was better at poker-facing than Danny and was able to keep herself from showing her joy at seeing him openly checking her out. It gave her hope. As of late, he'd been showing less and less interest in Paulina. He still wanted to achieve popularity, but that was more out of his desire for acceptance than anything else.

Of course, being a superhero seems to also go with having incredibly unlucky timing. When they were within eyeshot of their destination, a whisp of blue smoke escaped Danny's lips. "Damn!" he cursed in exasperation as he slapped his forehead. "It's supposed to be summer vacation!"

"Don't worry, dude," Tucker grinned as he and Sam moved to block an alleyway. "We gotcha covered."

Danny slipped into the alley. "I'll make this quick... I'm goin' ghost!" The familiar rings of light slid up and down Danny's body, transforming him into Danny Phantom. He shot up and out of the alley like a bullet into the sky and arced off toward where he believed the ghost to be.

"Good thing I made a habit of carrying around this," Tucker commented as he pulled out his Fenton thermos.

"Think you can handle that with your brain rotted as it is?" Sam asked sarcastically.

"Can you?" Tucker retorted.

Sam snatched the thermos out of his hand, twirling it around her finger like a Wild West gunslinger. She smirked smugly and went off to catch up with Danny.

She rounded the corner and immediately froze in her tracks. In her days helping Danny with his ghost fighting, she had seen some pretty weird stuff in her day. She had seen a mad scientist ghost with an ego problem. She had helped hide an interdimensional fugitive with a shedding problem that could only speak an auxiliary language. She had fought movie monsters. She had even been turned into a dragon. But this somehow was just too weird.

Tucker was similarly shocked. "Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"Am I really looking at Danny fighting a samurai ghost?"

"Yeah."

"Okay."

Danny was nimbly trying to stay ahead of the blade that a ghost in full red samurai armor was wielding. The only difference was that instead of wearing a helmet, the ghost wore a headdress with a thick white mane and a demon mask hiding the face. The ghost was also shouting expletives in Japanese, making it difficult to tell just what this was all about.

"I'm not sure..." Danny quipped as he glided out of the way of the ghostly blade again, "but I'm pretty sure you need a permit to carry one of those in public and you can't bring it into bars."

"Kisama!" the ghost shouted back. The two flew back and sized each other up. "Halfa?" the Japanese ghost asked with a suspicious tone.

"Oh, you've heard of me then?" Danny asked rhetorically. "Good to know I've got an international reputation."

The samurai ghost bowed once in mid-air then stepped back into a fighting stance and positioned his sword as if he were standing on solid ground. "Danny Phantom... Omae o korosu."

Danny just arched an eyebrow and lifted one hand with a half-frown. "Sorry, but you're lost in translation." He fired a single ectoplasmic blast, catching the ghost off-guard and hitting it squarely in the chest.

Sam uncapped the thermos and sucked the spectral samurai inside. "Am I the only one wondering what the hell that was all about?" she asked in confusion.

"No, and frankly I don't care." Danny descended to the ground and transformed back to human form now that the area was clear. "It was just a minor distraction on our route to poisoning ourselves with caffeine." His smile was back, as was his good mood. "Shall we?"

Eh. Pondering this weird incident could wait. Junk food awaited.

**-x-**

**Author's Notes:** This was just an idea I cooked up to bring a little variety to the show's mythos. I think you'll like where this is going.


	2. Beasts o' the East

**Author's Notes:** Just so you all know, the reason my updates are so slow is because I'm working on serious projects, stuff I intend to get published or produced. Fanfiction really isn't my top priority right now. I only can squeeze a little bit of time in when I've met all of my other writing goals for the day, which isn't easy let me tell you. There just aren't enough hours in the day.

Rest assured, I will finish everything, but I can't be speedy about it like I used to.

Ronin

Chapter 2 - Beasts o' the East

Danny lay back on his bed wearily. It had been a rough day. Apparently, school being out didn't stop Dash from being a pain in the ass. That guy was nothing but a predator, always trying to victimize whatever he perceived as weaker. Danny recalled a story about a kid who got bullied and beaten all the time until he finally snapped and killed one of the bullies with a knife. He wondered if Dash ever heard any of those stories and if it ever crossed his mind that he might one day cross the wrong person. He should consider himself lucky that Danny hadn't snapped, as he had enough firepower to kill him at least twice over before he even hit the ground.

With a frown, Danny tried to push those thoughts from his mind. He'd had enough bad encounters with the abuse of his powers already. And the temptation to keep misusing them was getting worse every day. He kept hearing that voice in the back of his head telling him that it was a waste to not use his powers in all aspects of his life, and he couldn't tell if it was his own or Plasmius'.

The cell phone on his nightstand pulled Danny out of his thoughts and he lethargically lifted it up and placed it to his ear. "Hello?"

"Danny!" was the urgent response.

"Sam?" That woke him up in a hurry.

"Danny, you really need to get down to the Nasty Burger! Now!" Whatever it was, she sounded panicked. The thought of whatever danger she was in caused a sudden rush of adrenaline and Danny dropped his phone without bothering to hang up before transforming and bolting out of the house at top speed. He had been improving his flight capabilities, which meant he was now able to achieve a maximum speed of 165 miles per hour with only a small sacrifice of mobility. Not that mobility was really needed when you could fly a straight shot to your destination.

It took only about a minute to reach his destination, seeing as the Nasty Burger was only a little more than two miles from his house. But even that short amount of time was too long for his liking. He pulled into a stop forty feet over the parking lot of the nasty burger and his eyes widened at the sight. Two samurai ghosts like the one he had fought yesterday were tearing the place apart. One had a huge creature that looked like one of those Chinese lion statues on a leash.

All the people had left already. Smart. Danny could see them all still running down the streets through his peripheral vision. This made his job a little easier at least. But where the hell was... oh no.

Sam must have been hiding behind the cars, trying to wait for Danny. She wasn't exactly one to back down from a challenge, even if it was a bad idea. But now the ghost... lion... thingy had spotted her. She made a break for it, but the other samurai ghost cut her off.

Not wasting a second, Danny went into a power dive, pulling up at the last second and swooping over Sam's head to smash his shoulder into the samurai ghost's chest. As he pulled himself to a halt, he turned 180 degrees and let loose a massive ectoplasmic blast, nailing the... lion-or-whatever-the-hell-it-was right in the face. "Sorry guys, no pets allowed!" he quipped.

The two samurai began shouting in Japanese and moved in for an attack. "Danny," Sam shouted, "look out!"

Danny dipped down, grabbed Sam around the waist and went intangible, passing the two of them through the asphalt of the parking lot. He'd learned a long time ago when moving through solid objects to trust his instincts about which way was up and how far he'd traveled. They were always right.

He emerged in a small alley about forty feet away and set Sam down. "Stay low," he warned. "I'll be back in a second." With a quick dash out, Danny managed to ambush the three ghosts while they were still trying to figure out where he was hiding. As he flew at them, he charged up an ectoplasmic blast and swung his arm out in a wide arc, intending to pitch his ecto-blast. Instead, it came out as a curved, bladelike arc of energy. It slammed into the two samurai and their pet, knocking them back.

"Since when could I do that?" Danny marveled. His moment of pride was short-lived, when he realized that in his haste he had forgotten the Fenton thermos back in his room.

"Sam? You got your thermos on you?" he asked desperately.

"You forgot yours?" she asked back in disbelief.

Danny soon regretted turning his back on the three ghosts as he felt the cold, non-pain feeling of a blade slashing the flesh of his back followed by the jarring impact of something large slamming into him and knocking him forward. He rolled a few times before running out of momentum and stopping at the mouth of the alley. It felt like his back and ribs were on fire. Then it felt like they were completely destroyed.

Sam kneeled by his side in alarm. "Danny!" She scowled over at the three ghosts who now began charging forward for the killing blow. Sam whipped out her thermos and caught the ghosts in mid-charge. They hadn't been expecting her to pose any threat at all, and so were taken completely off-guard. The beam of blue light trapped them all inside and the cap sealed them in.

With that dealt with, Sam kneeled by Danny again, her face taken over by concern. "Danny?"

Danny slowly and painfully pulled himself up, leaning his shoulder heavily against a wall. "I think... I think I'm gonna be okay," he muttered. "What hit me?"

"One of the ghosts got you in the back with his sword," Sam explained as she walked around to examine his wounds. "Then the fu lion gave you a head butt."

"The what-now?" Did he hear that right?

"Fu lion." Sam's voice took on a mechanical tone as her hands began gently exploring his back, eliciting the occasional wince from Danny. "What I don't get is where it came from. Fu creatures are supposed to be from Chinese legends, not Japanese. And those two ghosts were definitely Japanese."

"To tell you the truth, Sam," Danny strained as he forced himself to stand, "I don't really care right now... I think I need a doctor." He felt his balance decay again and he slid back down the wall as his knees weakened.

"Change back," Sam said gently as she pulled out her cell phone. "We'll just tell everyone that you weren't quick enough getting away." Her voice gave him some comfort. He felt like no matter what, he'd always be able to depend on her. Something told him that was going to be very important very soon.

**-x-**

Sam didn't like having to leave Danny in the hospital, but at the moment, she didn't have much choice. The cut from the sword wasn't very deep, but the contusions on his back were pretty bad. It was the bruising that had kept him from bleeding too badly, though. The doctors wanted to keep him for another day or two to see if any complications set in, though they remained optimistic.

Sam rubbed her eyes as she sat in her room. She couldn't just sit around and do nothing. Something was going on, and she had to figure out some sort of lead. Four Far Eastern ghosts in three days. What Sam hadn't told Danny was that the three at the Nasty Burger were also looking for him by name. Definitely something going on.

Sam kicked off her boots and set her laptop in front of her as she laid on her stomach on her bed. She decided to start simple and just did a Google search on samurai ghosts. A lot of the results were just what looked to be tourist brochures in Japanese, presumably about haunted places in the country. There were also some ghost stories here and there, and the occasional piece of badly written fanfiction for some cartoon or another. This was getting nowhere fast...

Wait... Sam had begun randomly clicking on links by the time she got to the 7th page of results, and the one she was looking at now had a picture of a painting of the first samurai ghost that Danny had fought, only as a living human.

Sam took a moment to examine the picture. It was indeed a perfect match; same armor, mask, headdress, and sword design. If there was one thing Sam prided herself on, it was her memory. It was part of a short article, but it was all in Japanese Kanji. Babelfish would be useless in translating it. The Japanese characters wouldn't work with the normal interface, and the program translated vocabulary, but not grammar, meaning all but a few sentences would be practically indecipherable. Sam had learned that the hard way when she pushed an article she wanted to use for a Spanish class project through Babelfish and the result ended up looking like a man with a head wound had been playing with a magnetic poetry kit.

Nevertheless, Sam bookmarked the page and decided to start looking for someone who spoke Japanese. There was a chance this could help, and she couldn't pass it by. Maybe Tucker knew somebody online who could help...

She pulled up an instant messenger and checked for FriarTuck. Bingo! Wherever there was an ethernet outlet or wireless zone, Tucker was guaranteed to be online. She quickly punched up a message and started the dialogue.

**Tucker, I need a favor.**

_wats up?_

**Do you know anybody who speaks Japanese and can translate Kanji?**

_a couple ppl. y? this have smthng 2 do wit danny and da ghosts you saw 2day?_

**Yes. I have a webpage I need translated. And will you stop using that retarded AOL speak! It drives me berserk.**

_sry_

_er... Sorry._

_Anyway, let me check to see if Shiunji's online. He lives in Kyoto, works as a tour guide._

**Cool.**

Sam only had to wait a minute before another IM window came up. The username read CaffeineSlave.

_Hello. This is Shiunji. You are Sam, Tucker's friend, yes?_

One of the nice things about talking to people who spoke English as a second language was that even if they hadn't perfected it, they still made an effort to get their spelling and grammar right. Unlike so many lazy American people online who thought it was cute to spell the word "the" as "da."

**Yes. I found a webpage I think might be useful for an essay I'm doing, but I can't read Kanji.**

_Send me the link, and I'll take a look._

Sam typed in the url and waited to hear Shiunji's response. It wasn't a very long article, so it shouldn't take him long to get through it.

_Hmm... Might take time to translate. My English still needs work._

**Let me know as soon as you get it, okay?**

_Alright. I'll send you a text file when I finish._

**Thanks.**

_You're welcome._

Now all Sam could do was sit back and wait. Hopefully this would provide some kind of clue as to what was going on. It often frustrated Sam how little she was able to help Danny sometimes. It's not like it was her fault. A mere mortal going up against ghosts was generally a bad idea. But she had to at least do _something_.

**-x-**

The next day, Danny was released early from the hospital. His mother came to pick him up in the Fenton RV. He had recently developed an accelerated healing factor, which meant he had pulled a miraculous recovery overnight. The doctors were perplexed, but as long as he was in good enough condition to safely leave, they couldn't keep him.

"Honey?" Maddie asked her son with deep concern as the left the hospital. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine, Mom," Danny assured her. "The doctor just doesn't want me to do any heavy lifting for a few days until the bruises clear up."

Maddie gently hugged her son. "Your father and I are sorry that we couldn't make it in time to help you and Sam."

"It's okay, Mom." It was moments like this when the maternal instincts overrode his mother's passion for ghost hunting. Danny really couldn't blame her for it. He knew enough to understand how powerful a connection any parent should have with their own flesh and blood.

"Something about this seems very strange, though," Maddie thought aloud. "I didn't know you were out with Sam today."

"Uh... it was kind of a spur of the moment... sorta thing," Danny lied quickly.

His mother shrugged it off as she climbed into the RV and started the engine. "And then there's this Invis... Danny Phantom character. People at the Nasty Burger said the ghosts were looking for him personally."

Danny had to wonder about this himself. Why would ghosts that can't speak English be looking for him? It seemed that finding him was their only objective.

He felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket and he checked the caller ID to see Sam's name on the display. He flipped it open and spared a glance at his mother. "Sam?"

"Danny," came her response. "Listen, I think I've found something that can help. How are you doing now?"

"I'm on my way home," he answered. "The doctors said I was well enough to be released early."

Sam obviously had more to say, but realized this wasn't the best time. "I'll be over to your house within the hour. Tell Tucker to come over as well. You guys need to see this."

Danny smiled slightly. Just like he had been musing last night, he could always count on Sam. "I'll see you then. Later." As he folded up and pocketed his phone, he caught his mother smiling at him. "What?"

"The way Sam looks out for you. It's sweet." Oh geese. Danny had a good feeling he knew where this was going.

His face warmed up and he looked out the window. "Well, we've known each other for years."

"I know," Maddie replied in a tone that suggested she was implying other things. "It's just really touching how close you two are."

"We're not a couple," Danny blurted out. Damn it! And he'd been getting better at this, too.

"I didn't say you were," Maddie said in a very singsong voice. "Was that perhaps a Freudian slip of some sort?"

Danny decided to keep his mouth shut for a while. If he didn't talk, maybe he wouldn't dig himself in any deeper.

"Danny," his mother spoke up, suddenly very serious, "I know you probably don't feel very comfortable talking to me about this... but I think there really is something magical between you and Sam." She placed a hand over her son's knee and smiled softly as they came to a red light. "Don't let it slip through your fingers while you still have the chance."

Danny looked at his mother from the corner of his eye, his mind mulling over everything she just said. He didn't say anything. He just nodded as he came to realize she was right.

An hour later found Danny, Sam, and Tucker sitting around in Danny's room. Sam was holding a piece of paper folded up into quarters. "Okay, Tucker's friend got the article translated for me, and it's not much, but it's definitely a clue."

Sam unfolded the paper and began reading through the highlighted paragraphs. "'_The Order of the Crimson Ghosts was a small clan of mercenaries believed to have started in the Iga province circa 1500 AD. During the military campaign of Oda Nobunaga, the Koga and Iga provinces were known as the greatest threat to the general's conquest of Japan. These provinces were the birthplace of Ninjutsu, the art of stealth, and the clans that lived there started the tradition of guerilla soldiers known today as Ninja. During Nobunaga's campaign, he raised the entire Iga province as a cautionary move. Other generals saw opportunity however, and this is where the Crimson Ghosts come in._

_"'The Crimson Ghosts were a small group and used particularly rigorous training. At the word of Nobunaga's march on the Iga province, the departed to the Koga province and waited there for a new opportunity to present itself. Tokugawa Ieyasu decided to exploit the skills of the guerilla warriors and Koga ninjas soon found themselves in his employ._

_"'The leader of the the Crimson Ghosts was a man known only as Kagyaku. He was a brilliant strategist and a formidable warrior in his own right. It was his decision for the clan to wear the demon headdresses that became their trademark. Many stories have been told of their skills, often exaggerated to a supernatural level._

"Here's the really important part, guys. _'In 1605, Kagyaku was at last captured in Kyoto during an attempted assassination in which he planned to double-cross Tokugawa. The greatest precautions were taken to prevent his escape until he was sentenced to death by being boiled alive as a traitor to Japan. As the fires were lit and Kagyaku was lowered into the cauldron up to his neck, he swore to return again one day. He cursed the warlords for tyrannically trying to unite Japan, and vowed to sunder the whole world as vengeance.'"_ Sam pulled out a sheet of paper that had a picture of a warrior in the same outfit and headdress of the first samurai ghost he'd fought. "I think this all has something to do with the Crimson Ghosts and Kagyaku."

"So let me see if I got this straight," Tucker piped up. "An assassin decides to settle his differences with his boss by screwing us all over?"

"That's about the size of it," Sam answered.

Danny analyzed the picture for a moment and thought about what Sam had just told them. "But what does he want with me. Why does he want me dead? Well... deader... all-dead... whatever."

"I haven't figured that part out yet," Sam sighed in resignation. "Now that we've got one lead, though, I can do more research."

Danny glanced out the window and saw the sun sinking beneath the horizon. "You guys better get going."

Tucker glanced at his PDA. "Yeah. My curfew is in an hour. I gotta get moving. Let me know as soon as you guys get anything else." With a quick wave, he was off.

"See ya, Danny," Sam said as she stretched out. "If I find anything, you'll be the first to know."

As she started toward the door, Danny decided it was time for him to take his mother's advice and be a little more proactive. He needed to sort out his feelings, and trying to maintain space between him and Sam hadn't worked so far. "Hey, Sam?"

She stopped and looked at him expectantly.

"Can I... Can I walk you home?"

**-x-**

**Author's Notes:** Okay, I'm sinking more time than usual into my writing as of late. By setting specific goals (write at least two scenes today in Script X, finish one more page of short story Y) I'm able to more effectively set my pace. Expect a few more updates in the next couple of weeks.

On a side note, I won't be able to give personal responses to my reviewers for a while. For some reason, has decided to make it a violation of the rules to do so. I've already signed a petition to have this repealed as I honestly can't see any good reason for it. It's one of the things that allow this place to be a real writing community. If you want to help out, send in a few letters of complaint to the administrators. With any luck, we can get rid of this arbitrary rule.


	3. Every Breath You Take

**Author's Notes:** I really wanted to resolve this one, because the scene is so vivid in my mind. So I'm getting to work early.

Ronin

Chapter 3 - Every Breath You Take

Sam smiled softly at Danny's question. A light blush colored her cheeks and she tried to find something to do with her hands. "I'd like that," she whispered.

Danny felt as if a huge weight had suddenly been lifted off his chest. He stood up and followed Sam out of the room. "I'll be back soon, Mom," he called out before stepping out the front door.

The summer air was warm and lethargic. Magic hour was just starting. Danny had learned that term in art class. It was coined by photographers to describe the period of 15 minutes every day around sunset where the angle of the sun's rays bathed everything in soft, pastel light. It was odd, but as much as Sam loathed the color pink, the soft pink, gold, and purple hues painting the city right now created a beauty too powerful to ignore.

Danny glanced over at Sam as they started the walk toward her house and smiled. He had to admit, she looked really beautiful in this light. It felt odd coming to terms with it, but he was finding himself more and more attracted to Sam. His mother was right. For once, when Sam caught him staring at her, he didn't look away in embarrassment. Instead, he just took her hand in his. Her blush deepened, but the smile was obvious.

The walk was slow. Slower than it really had to be. Danny really wanted to take his time. By the time they were within a couple blocks of Sam's house, the sun was long gone. "You know..." he said at last, "we should probably talk about this." It was the only words he'd spoken since they left the house, and he honestly couldn't think of a better way to approach the subject.

"W-what do you mean?" Sam asked, visibly wincing at herself for stuttering.

"Well..." Danny began, when a strange noise reached his ears. It was like the rhythmic scuffing of footsteps, but the time between them was too long. "Hold on... do you hear that?"

Sam furrowed her brow and listened. "Sounds like... someone walking really slow."

A figure rounded the corner. It seemed to be dressed in robes and was standing up straight. The arms were outstretched in front of it. The weird thing was that it was... hopping. Well, that explained the pauses. "Who the hell is that?" Danny asked

"I don't know," Sam answered. "But something doesn't feel right here."

That was proven soon enough when the figure stepped under the light of streetlamp and Danny felt his eyes go wider than he could have imagined. Even with all the weirdness in his life, he never would have expected something like this. The creature before them looked human, but it couldn't have been anymore. It was dressed in Chinese robes and stood a little over five feet tall. The skin was white as paper and looked just as dry, stretched tight over the skull. The eyes were pale and dead, two pinholes of red light emanating from the pupils like tiny fires. The gaunt hands held out in front of the creature ended in dirty, sharp talons. It opened its mouth to let out a hiss and showed a mouthful of sharp yellow teeth.

"What the hell is that?" Danny exclaimed as he jumped back with Sam, trying to shield her despite his own fear. He didn't bother to wait for an answer. He went ghost.

Immediately, the creature stopped its advance, seeming confused. It snarled again and began hopping toward them once more.

"Don't come any closer!" Danny threatened. When the monster hopped again, he fired off an ecto blast, knocking it over. The creature seemed to perform a somersault and righted itself like one of the wobblin' weebl toys. It seemed more confused and infuriated than ever before continuing to hop toward the two of them.

"Sam, get out of the way. I'm not sure what this thing is, but I need to take it down quick."

Sam nodded and ran across the street to find cover.

"Alright, ugly. It's just you and m-!" Danny stopped cold when he saw the monster ignore him and hop after Sam. "Hey! I'm over here, you scrawny jack-ass!" Seeing that the monster was thoroughly ignoring him, Danny launched himself at it in flight. He spun a hard round kick at the back of its head, knocking it over once again only to have it right itself like before.

Danny growled in frustration and sent another powerful ecto blast at the creature. This one sent it flying and singed its robes and dried skin. The monster made no notice however, and got right back up. Sam tried to run to get some distance between her and it, but within a few quick leaps, it had caught up to her and caught her neck in it s bony fingers.

Sam managed to barely choke out Danny's name as the preternaturally strong hands began to squeeze.

Danny panicked. He flew right to them and grabbed the monster's arms. "Let her go!" he yelled, trying to wrench its hands away, but its grip was like iron. Sam's face was going red, her eyes wide in horror.

"Let her go!" Danny practically screamed. His hands became surrounded in ectoplasm. Then his arms and shoulders, filling him with a strength he had never known before. With one great pull, he ripped the monster's arms off at the elbow joint with a sickening sound like a mixture of splintering bone and torn paper.

The monster howled in rage instead of pain, as its two severed arms released their grip on Sam's throat and she fell to the ground choking and desperately gulping in air.

Not wasting an instant, Danny dropped the arms and grabbed the creature by its head. Ecto blasts erupted from his palms, and with a howl that faded like the wind the monstrosity was reduced to little more than ash.

The thought of what he had just done barely registered in Danny's mind as he transformed back to a human and he immediately went to Sam's side in a near panic. "Sam? Sam, please say something."

"I'm okay," she said weakly, her voice strained and hoarse. Her voice and sobs, and with the tears in her eyes and bruises on her neck told him otherwise.

Danny scooped her up into his arms bridal style and carried her down the street to her house as fast as he could. "Just relax. It's over now. I'm taking you home."

Just as he reached Sam's house, the door opened up to show Sam's parents standing in the door. "What happened out here?" her father asked. "We heard shouting a minute ago."

"What happened to my daughter?" Mrs. Manson cried out in a mixture of horror and outrage seeing Sam in the state she was in.

Danny did some fast thinking and half-assed a cover story. "I was walking her home. Some guy tried to mug us and he attacked Sam. I... I think he was going to rape her."

Sam's mother gasped, on the verge of tears. Her father looked scared and perplexed at once. "Did he...?"

"No," Danny replied quickly. "I... I tried to fight him. He ran when I started yelling. I guess he was afraid people heard me."

Mr. Manson looked a little skeptical at first, but seemed to accept the story. "Let's get you two inside. I'm calling the police."

Danny sighed. His little cover story was going to cause some complications, but at least his secret wouldn't get out. More importantly, Sam was safe. That was all he really cared about right now.

**-x-**

Sam slowly came to, recognizing the familiar setting of her bedroom. She stirred weakly, her head feeling as if it had been packed with cotton and her skull turned to lead. As her vision came into focus, she pushed herself back against the headboard to see better and saw Danny sitting on the floor next to her bed. His head was resting on its side on the mattress and he was fast asleep.

The memories came back all at once. She remembered the monster that attacked them. The feeling of its cold, rough hands encircling her neck... strangling her as her vision tunneled. Sam liked to believe she was strong, but even the hardiest souls were shaken by a brush with death. She couldn't stop the sobs from shaking her body as the fear from that moment, thinking that she was going to die, came as such a fresh memory.

Danny slowly stirred and woke up. In an instant, Sam felt herself being pulled into his arms as he sat on her bed and whispered to her. "Shh... It's okay, Sam."

Sam clung to Danny like he was the only thing real to her anymore. She hated herself for showing this kind of weakness. She was supposed to be strong. And here she was crying into his shoulder, trying in vain to chase away the memories of the attack. Still... his presence was comforting. She knew how much Danny hated seeing her cry. The last time she had ever done this was in second grade. They were on the playground when someone found a mole. Dash, in a juvenile attempt to prove how tough he was, stepped on it and killed it. Sam kicked him in the crotch and ran off under her favorite willow tree to cry. Danny was there to see the whole thing and he spent the next hour-and-a-half desperately trying to stop her tears.

Time sort of lost its meaning at that point. The last thing Sam remembered before slipping back into the comparative tranquility of half-sleep was Danny's voice whispering, "You're safe now, Sam. I'll never let anything hurt you again."

When Sam next awoke, she saw Danny sitting next to her bed, flipping through a trade paperback of PS238, the only non-Goth comic book she ever read. Danny and Tucker had persuaded her into reading it, and she immediately fell in love with the series. She glanced at her digital clock to see that it was almost noon. "Danny?" she asked softly, he voice still weak from the injuries on her neck.

Danny looked up from the comic and smiled softly. "Good afternoon, sleeping beauty. You feeling better?"

Sam smiled gently despite herself and nodded slowly. "What happened?"

Danny sighed and lost his smile. He glanced at the door as if expecting her parents to come in any time now before sitting on her bed. "I destroyed that... thing. Practically vaporized it. Your parents called the police when I got you home, so I gave them all a bogus story about a rapist in a Halloween mask. I can't believe they bought it. Still, it's better than telling them we were attacked by a hopping zombie."

Sam suddenly had a flash of memory and the truth dawned on her. "Vampire actually."

Danny furrowed his brows and gave her a strange look. "A vampire?"

"A Chinese one, specifically. A kyonshi." Sam had delved into Far Eastern superstition a few years back, utterly fascinated by the ways of different cultures. "It's a restless spirit whose corpse was buried improperly. Rigor mortis sets in, so they can only hop. And they can only see you if you breathe."

Danny's eyebrows went up in revelation. "So that's why it ignored me! In my ghost mode, I don't have to breathe. It didn't know I was there."

Sam nodded. "But what I don't get is what it was doing here on the West Coast."

The two shared a silence before Danny spoke up. "I think there's only one real way to find out. You said our main lead was the Order of the Crimson Ghosts and Kagyaku, right?"

Sam nodded again, and decided not to do that anymore as it was starting to irritate her bruises. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking you're thinking?"

"Probably," Danny answered. "We're going to have to go to Japan ourselves and try to fit all the pieces together."

There was a knock at the door, causing the two of them to jump slightly. Danny put one finger to his lips quickly before turning to the door. "Come in."

The door opened and both the Mansons and the Fentons came in. The mothers went immediately to their children and enveloped them in crushing maternal hugs.

"Oh, Sammiekins!" Mrs. Manson crooned in her usual singsong voice. "Don't scare us like that!"

"Danny, I'm so proud of you," Maddie gushed. "The police and Mr. and Mrs. Manson told us everything!"

"That's my son, alright!" Jack beamed. "A real fighter, a hero!"

Mr. Manson cleared his throat and looked over at Jack. "I have to admit, I... owe your family an apology," he muttered grudgingly.

Sam was a little surprised by everything that was going on. She had no idea her parents actually cared this much. Her father was even apologizing to the Fentons. "Mom, please! Watch the neck!"

"Out of curiosity, when did you guys get here?" Danny asked.

"We arrived last night," Jazz answered. "You and Sam were asleep, so we didn't want to bother you two."

"Daniel never left your side, Sammiekins," Mrs. Manson explained. "We offered him a guest room, but he insisted on staying here all night."

Danny smiled embarrassedly and looked off to the side as his face went bright red. "She would have done the same for me," he said, trying to wave it off.

"Why don't we all head downstairs," Mr. Manson ordered rather than suggested. "I'll have the cook fix us all some brunch, and we can talk about it over a nice meal."

Everyone knew there was no real sense in arguing with Sam's father in his own house and acquiesced. "Danny and I will be down in a minute, Dad."

"Very well. Don't take long." Everyone but Sam and Danny filed out of the room. Except Jazz who straggled a bit.

She paused at the doorway, then turned and came back into the room, shutting the door behind her. "Okay, you two, what really happened?" she asked bluntly.

"What?" Sam and Danny asked in unison.

"Danny, that story about a rapist was fake, wasn't it?" Jazz asked directly. "I can tell when you're hiding something because your eyebrows always arc upward when you do."

"Well... the thing is..." Danny was desperately stalling for time.

"Danny, please," Jazz said gently as she pulled up a chair from Sam's desk to the bed. "There's something going on that you aren't telling me. Whatever your secret is, it's safe with me. But please stop hiding it from me."

Sam knew there was no escaping it this time. She placed a hand over Danny's and looked him in the eye. "It's time, Danny. She's going to find out sooner or later."

Danny sighed in resignation. "The truth is... Jazz, I'm the ghost boy. I'm... Danny Phantom."

Jazz breathed a sigh of relief. "I was starting to wonder if you'd ever tell me," she said with a smile.

Danny did a double take. "Wait, you knew I was the ghost boy?"

"I have since the Spirit Week incident," Jazz explained. "I just wanted you to be the one to tell me yourself."

Danny and Sam looked at one another in surprise. "Well, isn't this just a kick in the head," Danny muttered.

"Now that we've got that out," Jazz continued, "what happened last night?"

Danny paused for a moment as if choosing the best words. "I was walking Sam home last night. The sun went down and we were attacked by... what did you say it was, Sam?"

"A kyonshi," Sam replied. "It's a Chinese creature also called a hopping vampire. But it behaves more like a zombie."

"What's a Chinese monster doing here?" Jazz asked, clearly just as perplexed as them.

"That's a damn good question," Danny said in response. "Sam and I only have one lead right now. All these Asian ghosts keep showing up, and we think it might have something to do with this ancient ninja clan called the Order of the Crimson Ghosts."

Jazz furrowed her brows in thought. "We'll have to talk more about this later. For now, we better head downstairs before everyone starts wondering what's taking us so long."

Sam nodded and slowly got out of bed. She still had a slight headache, but that wasn't anything a couple of aspirin couldn't fix. She also was suddenly pleased with herself for looking into holistic medicine and remedies. That herbal bruise lineament she bought a couple weeks ago was going to be very handy to have around. The bigger issue though was how they were going to arrange a trip to Japan when they were just a couple of minors...

**-x-**

**Author's Notes:** This chapter wasn't supposed to be out this early, you know. But it practically wrote itself and I just couldn't stop. I'll have to dedicate myself to finishing up the next chapters of LCA! and AMI. But first I need to finish the last 30 or so pages of a script before September 10th. I really have to bust my ass to make this work, so wish me luck.


	4. Land of the Rising Sun

**Author's Notes:** Yeah, updates are slow. I wish I could update faster, but I don't have that sort of time anymore. That's just the way it being in college and everything. Having to work graveyard shifts. Living off of ramen noodles, and not out of choice. But now I'm getting all emo, so let's just move on, shall we?

Ronin

Chapter 4 - Land of the Rising Sun

Danny volunteered to stay at Sam's for the day for "moral support." Fortunately, everyone bought the act and didn't seem to bat an eye over the fact that Jazz was doing the same, despite the fact that she had no more of a connection to Sam than the Fenton parents. Adults were really oblivious that way. It still boggled the mind that they actually believed his half-assed rapist story. That should have been the least believable thing in the world, and yet, here they were, giving details to the cops and everything on a non-existent criminal.

Anyway, once they were alone, this brought up an important issue. "So we figure we have to get to Japan to investigate this whole mess," Danny explained to his sister. "But as to the how part..."

Jazz leaned back in the chair she had settled into and thought. "You know... I might just have an answer to that," she said with a knowing smile.

Sam and Danny looked at one another with furrowed brows before looking to the redhead in front of them. "Care to elaborate?" Sam asked in her usual deadpan manner.

"I thought you'd never ask," Jazz responded. "I happen to know some international friends. While doing a study on the effects of violent media, I made some contacts in Japan regarding... ahem, ultra-violent porn cartoons." Jazz seemed to go a little red in the face at the thought of that, and Danny got a mixed feeling as a result. On the one hand, there was his morbid curiosity side kicking up from those commercials he saw from Akira, and on the other hand he really didn't want to think too much about just what Jazz's blush could have meant.

"Anyway," she continued, "I stayed in contact with one person after I finished my research. Her name is Erika and she's been bugging me to visit her and her fiancé for some time. This seems like as good an excuse as any, don't you?"

Danny and Sam once again looked to each other. "I got nothing planned I couldn't move around," Danny said with a light smile.

"And I have connections that can get us passports by tomorrow if need be," Sam replied.

"Now comes the tricky part, though: explaining this one to our parents."

Jazz giggled slightly. "Leave that to me."

**-x-**

"So let me get this straight," Sam said for about the third time that week as the plane taxied onto the runway. "You somehow convinced our parents that you were going to continue your research on violent media _in_ Japan and you wanted us to come along as the experiment's control?"

"That's about the size of it," Jazz answered as she settled into her seat and pulled out a copy of one of numerous self-help books she bought at the bookshop next to the terminal. She then took a retractable pen out and began jotting down notes in the margins as she read. Danny had explained to Sam earlier that this was one of his sister's latest habits. Any time she read a book that was even vaguely psychological, she had to make all sorts of notes on it to research at a later date what parts were good and which were a load of crap.

"With any luck we'll be able to find what we need before there's any real trouble back home," Danny sighed as he leaned back in his seat.

A silence settled over the trio as the plane took off. By the time it was okay to turn electronic devices back on, Sam pulled out her mp3 player. She had categorically refused to buy an iPod, seeing them as the latest mainstream fad. They were just another item with the Cool Thing Factor attached to him, making them unbelievably pretentious and thoroughly useless to Amity Park's resident Dark Princess.

"What are you putting on?" Danny asked casually as he pulled out his CD player.

"Cruxshadows," Sam answered. She had recently taken an interest in darkwave music and upon discovering the Cruxshadows, promptly bought up their entire discography and a couple of posters to throw a little extra support their way. "You?"

"Alter Bridge," he replied. Sam tried hard to hide the smile and blush that were coming to her cheeks as she nodded and put in her headphones. Every time Danny listened to Alter Bridge he either lip-synched or played air guitar. It may have looked a little goofy, but it was so god damn adorable! Sure enough, after listening to two songs, Sam glanced over to see Danny sitting there air guitaring away and lip-synching to what she presumed was Open Your Eyes. She tried hard to push down the smile once again and buried her face in one of the catalogs left in the net pocket on the back of the seat in front of her.

As the flight went on, everything was rather predictable. The food wasn't lousy, but it was bland. The movie was okay, but nothing to write home about. The best thing about the flight was the arrival in Japan several hours later. Of course, the time zone changes meant that they were arriving around pretty much the same time they had left. Relatively speaking.

The airport itself was packed full of Japanese people and the token vacationing foreigner like the three of them.

Before Sam knew it, a young Japanese woman came rushing up to them and bowed swiftly. "Jazz Fenton?" has asked excitedly.

"Erika?" Jazz asked with equal anticipation.

The two girls hugged each other quickly and laughed. "It is good to see you," Erika gushed in accented English. "Come. We shall all catch the train to my neighborhood."

"Well... she seems nice," Danny deadpanned.

Sam wasn't sure she could stand to be around such a sunny personality, but it was for a good cause. She'd stomach it... hopefully. She couldn't say she cared much for the crowded conditions, though. The scenery at least made up for it. It was easy to see why Kyoto was called the sacred city. Everyone seemed to tread with a kind of reverence around here. The architecture was nothing short of majestic, and the shrines were gorgeous the way they integrated with nature. By the time they all arrived at Erika's apartment, Sam found herself developing a newfound affinity for Japanese aesthetics.

The apartment, by Japanese standards was relatively large. Apparently, Erika's fiancé was a doctor, affording them some larger living spaces than what a lot of people could afford. "I apologize," Erika said as if she were confessing to a crime, "but we only have one bed. We can make bedding for you in the living room, though I wish we could make your accommodations more comfortable."

"Oh, I'm sure we'll be fine," Jazz assured her. She turned to Danny and Sam and hid a conspiratorial wink to them. "Erika and I are going to do some catching up. Why don't you two go do some sightseeing?"

Though Sam was certainly not about to say anything, she also wasn't about to waste another chance to be alone with Danny for a while. No Tucker, no Valerie, no ghost attacks... at least so she hoped.

**-x-**

Danny raked a hand back through his hair as they passed by a shop stocked full of paper lanterns. "So, any idea where we should start looking?" he asked flatly.

"Not a clue," Sam admitted. "All the information I was able to dig up on Kagyaku is pretty scant. For now, we should just check out the lay-out of the city and see if we can find some kind of clue somewhere."

"Just play the part of tourists, huh?" Well, not like that would be hard. It was a really nice country aside from the overabundance of smokers. "Oh well. Promised my parents I'd bring them back a nice souvenir anyway."

"If we're right, and Kagyaku really is behind this," Sam thought aloud, "why do you think he's so intent on tracking you down?"

"I wish I knew," Danny admitted. "With any luck though, he doesn't know we're here."

They passed an hour or two this way, taking in sights, trying to plan out their strategy. They stopped in a small boutique that sold traditional clothing, masks, and other apparel. It was at this point that Danny found himself in a position he never thought he would. He was sitting outside the dressing rooms, waiting for Sam. Never, not in a million years, did he ever suspect something like that was going to happen. In the meantime, their conversation had steered away from ghosts to slightly more pleasant topics. "No way. The greatest kill line ever is from The Untouchables. Elliot Ness shoves the dude off the roof and says, 'Did it sound anything like that?'"

"Oh give me a break," Sam chimed from behind the door to her changing room. "Inigo Montoya has the most prolific kill line of all time."

"I thought you hated popular things," Danny challenged.

"I do. But for every rule there is an exception."

"You're just saying that because Carey Elwes is in the movie."

"Typical guy response."

"I gotta be me. You almost done in there?"

Sam hesitated a moment. "Yeah... I'm not really sure how this looks on me though."

"Typical girl response," Danny muttered ironically, just loud enough for Sam to hear.

The door opened, and the cocky half-grin was wiped right off Danny's face. Sam had changed into a black kimono and slippers. The kimono had a lotus print in a rich, velvety purple, the same color as the wide sash that helped the garment show off her slender figure. The sleeves bellowed out as they went down so that the hems actually reached close to her ankles when she crossed her arms over the sash below her chest. The material was obviously fine silk, giving Sam a regal, luxurious, refined look that Danny had never seen before. He knew she was a very pretty young woman, but in that kimono she looked like royalty out of a storybook. There was just something sublimely elegant about the way she looked and carried herself.

Sam's face went bright red and she turned a few times both so Danny could see the whole garment and she could see how she looked in the nearby mirrors. "What do you think?" she asked self-consciously. It was probably the first time Danny had ever heard that tone of voice from her.

"Words fail me," he admitted. "Uh, I mean, in a good way."

If possible, Sam went even redder and she smiled softly. "I have to admit, I never thought I'd see myself in one of these."

"It's a good look for you." That was the understatement of the year.

"I couldn't agree more," came a lightly accented female voice. They both turned to see one of the proprietors of the shop. "That's one of our finest kimonos, and I must say that it really does compliment your eyes. Your boyfriend here looks positively spellbound."

Danny really wanted to shrink down and go invisible right about then. Too bad it wasn't an option.

Sam looked herself over with an embarrassed smile. "I guess I'll take it then."

Ten minutes later and the two were heading back to the apartment with Sam clutching the box with her new kimono in it under one arm. "Planning on wearing that to a poetry slam?" Danny teased.

"I just may," Sam replied haughtily. "I could be Amity Park's resident Dragon Lady. What about you?"

Well, that was a little ambiguous. "Huh?" Yeah... real smooth, Fenton.

"We could get you a nice jacket and a katana. Danny Phantom, samurai specter."

Danny couldn't help but smile a little at the thought. He always did like all the old romanticized warriors. When he found out George Lucas based the Jedi knights off of samurai in Akira Kurosawa films, he sat in for the night with Tucker and Sam to watch Seven Samurai. It had become one of his favorite movies. "Yeah... That might be cool."

His cell phone going off interrupted his train of thought. He glanced at the caller ID to see Tucker's name popping up. This had better be good or the phone bill was going to be hell. "Tucker? What's up?"

"Oh... not much," Tucker responded. "Just wanted to check in with you guys, see how everything's going and, uh, oh yeah! Just thought you should know that we need you to _hurry up_!"

Danny pulled the phone away slightly at Tucker's yell. "Tucker, what the hell?"

"There have been another five ghost attacks today. They're all looking for you."

"What?" Well, this complicated matters. "Is anybody hurt?"

"Not yet, no. But it's getting worse. The mayor put your parents in charge again."

"Damn." Danny looked to Sam and pursed his lips, clearly letting her know that things just got even more complicated. "Tuck, I need you to do us a favor. Tell Valerie that Danny Phantom is working on fixing all this, and she's going to have to help my parents hold down the fort until I... he figures out what's going on."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Tucker asked skeptically.

"No. But if you got a better one I'd like to hear it."

"Point taken. All right, man. I'm on it. Good luck over there."

"You too, Tuck. You too." Danny hung up the phone and looked to Sam who had her brows furrowed in concern. "We need to get back to the apartment. We need to find some more leads, pronto. I'll explain on the way."

**-x-**

**Author's Notes:** It might be a couple weeks before I put up another update. I've got a lot of work on my plate right now.


	5. Two Lights by Sea

**Author's Notes:** Well, here I am again. Updates will still be sporadic as I still have a ton of stuff going on in my life. But I haven't abandoned these little projects.

Just to remind everybody, I started work on this right after Reign Storm. For all intents and purposes, the canon in the series ends there for the sake of this story.

Ronin

Chapter 5: Two Lights by Sea...

Contact Valerie? Valerie Grey of all people! Sweet monkey Jesus, Danny! Tucker hated the idea. Hate, hate, hated it! Valerie may have had good intentions with her ghost hunting, but she was a loose cannon. She didn't understand things as thoroughly as she should, and her truce with Danny Phantom was shaky at best. Was Danny nuts? Then again... Tucker had to wonder why he was asking himself questions to which he already knew the answer.

With trepidation, Tucker found himself in front of the door to Valerie's apartment. At the last second before knocking he pulled out a quarter and flipped it. "Heads." Heads! Hot damn! He didn't have to knock after all! He turned on his heel happily and was about to stride off when the door opened.

"I'll be back later, Dad! Bye!" God, what did I do to make you angry with me? Yeah, that was a good question right about now. "Wha-?" Tucker turned to face Valerie with a nervous smile. "You need something?"

"Kinda..." Was there a tactful way to do this? Probably not. Tucker knew he wasn't the most tactful guy anyway. His specialty was pick-up lines... which... didn't work. But they would eventually... maybe. "I'm sort of playing messenger here," he continued, trying to keep his voice from getting a nervous squeak. "You know the ghost attacks lately?"

Valerie furrowed her brow and frowned. "Yeah. What about them?" Oh god, how he hated when women got that look. Obviously not a subject she wanted to talk about.

"Well, I just got a visit from Danny Phantom the other day and-"

"What?!" Valerie's whole expression changed to one of surprise and confusion.

"He wanted me to give you a message," Tucker tried to explain, but Valerie still had more questions.

"Why did he want you to give me the message?" She seemed to wince when she realized how that came out. Valerie may still have been a little snooty, but she wasn't rude. Never was, really. Tucker had gotten over her a long time ago, but he still wondered if they could have been friends under different circumstances. "No offense. I'm just wandering why he didn't go right to me."

Tucker shrugged. He hadn't thought to come up with an answer for that one. Time to half-ass. "He said something about a truce and not wanting to do something wrong, I don't know. He said you and Danny are friends, but he couldn't find him, so he decided to try another degree of separation."

Valerie wasn't actively questioning Tucker, but he could tell by her face that she was suspicious. "Well... what did he say?"

Tucker took a deep breath and prepared himself. He still didn't know how she'd respond to this. "Well, he thinks he knows where all these weird ghosts are coming from, but he had to leave town to investigate."

"Leave town?!" Valerie spluttered. "Where the hell does he plan on going? China?!"

Tucker felt inclined to give her the point. Judges' verdict? "Japan actually." That took the wind out of her sails. "Anyway, he wants you to hold the fort here while he's gone. He doesn't want these ghosts to know yet that he's not in Amity Park."

"Why?" Valerie asked in a very accusatory tone. "He just wants us to suffer while he runs off?"

"No!" Tucker answered defensively, not just for Danny, but also for himself. Valerie could be very intimidating when she tried. "He said something about figuring out a mystery. The people here have you and the Fentons. Japan, not so much. I mean, what are they supposed to do? Torture the ghosts with Sayonara Pussycat reruns until they're ready to hurl and leave?"

Valerie folded her arms and closed her eyes. She obviously knew Tucker was making sense (amazingly). "I guess this means you know about my secret."

"It's safe with me," Tucker assured her. Tucker still didn't like this idea, but now that he was here standing in front of Valerie having this conversation, he started to believe that maybe it wouldn't be so bad. For some reason, it was a lot easier to be suspicious of Valerie when you weren't looking her right in the eye. After all, Danny had come to trust her as a person, and though he got a little reckless at times he still had a good intuition when he chose to listen to it. Either way, Amity Park needed heroes while Danny Phantom was away. _Someone_ had to step up to the plate.

**-x-**

"Thanks, Tuck. Remember to check in same time tomorrow." Danny hung up his cell phone and slumped back into the couch. Erika's apartment was a little Spartan, but she compensated by having some really comfortable furniture. It was 2 PM for him and Sam, but for Tucker it was 7 PM yesterday because of the international dateline and his next call would be at 5 PM today, or rather tomorrow, which was... argh, it hurt worse than from ice cream! "We've got our home covered," he muttered to Sam as he rubbed his forehead against the confusion. "Still no new leads."

"About that..." Sam responded. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor beside Danny with her laptop, diligently studying something or other. He was sorely tempted to reach over and run his fingers through her hair. Naturally, he decided to avoid mentioning to her that her roots were turning brown again. Tucker once commented that Sam went through hair dye faster than Gwen Steffani and got a football-sized bruise on his shin for it. "I think there's a couple museums we might be able to check out for some clues."

"Such as...?" Danny hadn't set foot in a museum since his last field trip. It wasn't that he didn't "appreciate culture" as Lancer once put it. Just that there were other things he liked to do. Things like... going to the movies.

"The Museum of Kyoto is the obvious place to start at," Sam answered. "Along with the Kyoto National Museum. They have the most complete exhibits, though I'm not sure if they'll have anything that esoteric."

"Better than nothing. Sitting here is gonna drive me crazy." Danny found himself wondering how guys with ADD were able to sit through class given how antsy he always felt.

"There's also the Japanese Oni Museum and Fukuchiyama Castle," Sam added absently. "More focused. The second one's a long shot, but it's better than nothing. It was a newly established fort in the 1500's... back when Kagyaku was alive."

Danny peered over her shoulder at the screen, the angle screwing up the colors and the contrast for him so that he really had no idea what was looking at. "What time is good for you to go looking?"

"Right now. The Museum of Kyoto will still be open for another few hours." Sam quickly jotted down the address in English and Kanji on a scrap of paper and slipped it into her messenger bag. Danny had gotten it for her not too long ago. A Misfits bag with a big Fiend Skull emblazoned on the front. It gave him one of those sappy warm feelings whenever he saw her using it.

He stood up and stretched out his legs. "Let's get going, then." He opened the door for Sam and let her pass first, since she was the one who knew where they were going. Danny couldn't even get MapQuest to stay accurate for more than a block, so Sam had done all the travel research before they left.

As they were on their way out, Danny noticed Sam acting a little nervous. She kept chewing on her lip lightly, which always meant that something was on her mind. He'd begun to notice these little things about her recently, and it made him feel closer to her somehow. "You okay, Sam?" He tried to use his most unobtrusive voice, as she was hardly the type of person to wear her emotions on her sleeves.

"Hmm?" Sam shook her head as if to clear it, as if she had forgotten for a second that Danny was right next to her. "Oh... I was just thinking..."

"We'll be fine," Danny assured her. "There's nothing I can't handle." He tried to say that being a little cocky and... well, macho. Maybe it would cheer her up, get her to stop being so edgy.

Sam smiled a little and her face flushed lightly. "I know, but it's not that. When I was reading about Kyoto before we came here, I found out that they're having the annual Takigi O-Noh tonight. It's only done on June 1st and 2nd every year. I was hoping... I wanted to go see it... Would you...? I mean..."

Danny had never seen Sam so flustered. He had no idea what the hell a "tack-ee-gee oh no" was, but it was pretty obvious she wanted him to be there for it with her. "What time do we have to be there?"

Sam turned to Danny, a rare genuine smile gracing her painted lips. Nothing like her usual sardonic smirk or smug half-smile. Whatever it was Danny had just agreed to, it had really made her day. He just smiled back and took her hand in his.

**-x-**

Valerie leaned back on the park bench and sipped from her Sierra Mist as Tucker finished explaining the story. She knew there was more he wasn't telling her. True, he could keep a secret. But he wasn't a very good liar. Now was not the time to press the issue, though. There were much more important things to worry about. "Well, you have my cell number, don't you?"

"Yours, Danny's, and Sam's are about all I've got," he responded unashamedly. In the last few months, he had begun to act less embarrassed about his own... social faults. Then again, given how Valerie's former friends treated her when she had her little fall from grace, maybe Tucker's style of finding _real_ friends shouldn't have been labeled a fault.

"Good. Be sure to let me know immediately the instant you see anything..." There was one thing still bugging her, though. "Out of curiosity, where is Danny? I haven't seen him around all week."

Tucker nearly choked on his Coke. Yet again, he was obviously about to tell a lie. "Uh... Jazz is doing some independent project. She wanted Danny and Sam to go with her as her 'control.' I wasn't really paying attention."

Valerie decided to give one last try at getting something out of him. "Yeah, but where _exactly_ did they go?"

"Uh... New York..." He was floundering, but he was going to stick to his story. Valerie just sighed and nodded.

The mysteriousness of it all didn't bug her. Rather, it was the fact that Sam was with Danny. Valerie knew Sam wasn't one to back down from a challenge, and she had made it a pretty clear challenge in the Nasty Burger that day... Either way, Danny would be the one choosing. And that got to Valerie harder than she cared to admit. She spent so many years in the upper social ranks, being able to date whoever she wanted whenever she wanted. And of course, she had done her reading on feminist theory for an elective class last term. Women always wanted to believe that they were the ones selecting the guy, not the other way around. Truer words have seldom been spoken, Valerie thought. Maybe it was all just part of growing up...

Great, now she was getting all after-school-special on herself. She glanced over at her watch. It was almost 8. She needed to get going. "I'm heading out, Tucker. Remember, you derailed me from running a few errands. We'll talk about this tomorrow."

Tucker gave off a little half-wave, half-salute and smirked. "Roger-dodger."

Valerie smiled in spite of herself and wondered if maybe under different circumstances she and Tucker could have been friends.

**-x-**

The sun was setting and the crowd was amassed at the Heian Jingu Shrine. The bonfires had been lit and a hush fell over the crowd. Danny had learned just before coming here that Takigi O-Noh was a traditional Noh play performed to the light of bonfires at the shrine. It was held when the blue flag and iris flowers were in full bloom. As he and Sam moved to their seats, vendors were selling silk flowers in the shape of the blossoms around the temple. On an impulse, Danny bought one and gently tucked it into Sam's hair behind her ear, causing her to turn bright red.

She had come dressed in her new kimono. Appropriate, because a lot of other people had come dressed in formal folk attire as well. Figuring this would be the case, he'd bought a haori jacket for himself. It was a loose fit and took some getting used to, but the black linen was very comfortable, and he really liked the old-fashioned samurai image embroidered across the back.

Danny had no delusions about his attention span. Which is to say, he didn't have one. He was very much a part of the MTV generation of instant gratification and speed. But tonight... tonight was different. He sat beside Sam, holding her hand. The temple grounds around them that radiated a timeless majesty and blended so seamlessly with nature made even him admit that the whole thing was achingly beautiful. The city glow seemed muted, and only the moonlight and glow of the fires existed, making the whole temple feel like a wide-awake dreamland. The choir chanted softly in Japanese while the actors in their elaborate masks and costumes moved in slow, hypnotic dances. He had no idea what the play was about, but it made no difference at this point. The pageantry and reverence evoked a feeling of wonder and fantasy in him that he'd never known before. He started to understand Sam's fascination with nature and Old World culture.

He turned slowly to Sam, watching her out of the corner of his eyes. The dancing flames of the bonfire casting a playful movement across her pale skin. The corners of her full lips were turned up in a tiny smile. The light created a silver halo around her dark hair that she had let down out of her usual ponytail... She was so beautiful.

Sam slowly met his gaze, and her smile widened. He tightened his grip on her hand, and she returned the gesture.

**-x-**

Tucker was awoken suddenly by a loud crash followed by the wailing of a car alarm. He sprang up out of bed and rushed to the window. Jumped up Judas Priest! There had to be at least a dozen samurai ghosts out there! They were smashing cars, mailboxes, lampposts, and fire hydrants, following each act of destruction with a call for Danny Phantom.

Scrambling to his desk, he grabbed up his cell phone and hit the speed dial for Valerie's number. "Come on, come on... Pick up... Pick up the phone, damn it!"

He was about to give up and call the Fentons when Valerie answered, sounding very groggy. "It's 2 in the morning," she grumbled in a voice that could freeze mercury. "This better be good."

"Ghost attack!" Tucker all but shouted.

"What?!" That got her up in a hurry. "Where?!"

"My neighborhood! Hurry!" Tucker heard the sound of the phone dropping onto something and knew from that Valerie was on her way. He scrambled quickly into a pair of cargo pants and snagged his Fenton Thermos. The chance of Valerie catching him with this was worth the risk. He could hear screams outside now. People were going to get hurt!

**-x-**

Sam couldn't believe it. The festival was even more wonderful than she had imagined. And it meant the world to her that Danny was here with her right now. She met his eyes and couldn't stop the smile on her face. He cut a very dashing figure. His body had built up from fighting ghosts almost constantly, and it only made his strong features stand out better. The evening light and the glow of the fires made him look otherworldly. His blue eyes were like polished stones, and in that haori he looked like a noble warrior courting his ladylove. The very thought that she could be that lady love made Sam blush deeper than she thought was possible.

She didn't want to miss the play, but at the same time she couldn't take her eyes off of Danny. Slowly, as if in a dream, he reached his free hand up and cupper her cheek as if cradling her. His touch was delicate, gentle... reverent. He touched her as if she were some wonderful treasure that would break if he didn't show the proper care. And it made her feel warmer than she had ever felt in her life.

His lips parted almost imperceptibly and he began to lean in. She felt herself moving closer to him. Time ceased to matter, to mean anything. It could have been a matter of seconds or a matter of hours, she didn't care. Their lips brushed and Sam felt her heart pounding in her chest. She realized, much to her great surprise, that she was actually trembling! No one had ever made her feel like this before, no one. And as the kiss deepened, she knew she would never have it any other way.

**-x-**

Tucker ducked to avoid another slash of the ghost's katana. It just wasn't fair that something that wasn't even made of matter could be that sharp! He scrambled up and jumped, sliding his butt across the hood of a car. He cleared to the other side just in time to avoid another slash. The blade embedded itself in the engine and wouldn't come loose. The ghost grunted in frustration trying to pry his sword loose, the ugly demon mask over his face providing no hint of emotion aside from the burning light behind the eyeholes.

Tucker smirked victoriously and held up his Fenton Thermos. "Say goodnight, sucker!"

His victory was abruptly cut off. Literally. Another ghost came to join his comrade and flanked Tucker, slicing his Thermos neatly in half like it was butter.

Tucker looked at the useless stump in his hand and then up at his enemies. "I'm screwed," he squeaked as the first ghost pried his sword loose and prepared for a final attack.

**-x-**

**Author's Notes:** And there you have it! Took me long enough, didn't it? I was on a roll once I got through my block.

The locations talked about in this chapter are real Japanese landmarks, and the Takigi O-Noh festival is real as well. I was doing research for the story and wanted to include a scene with a traditional Japanese festival, and this one was just too perfect to pass up. For those of you who have never witnessed Noh theatre before, I promise you it is a unique experience. Whether or not you enjoy it, it will leave a big impression on you.

Also, I hope you all like the romantic scene in this one. I'm rather proud of the visuals in this one, and I actually think this is the most tender love scene I've ever written. That said, I hope I don't drive you too made with the intercutting and the cliffhanger, but the juxtaposition was really cool in my head. Very dramatic.

Anyway, things are going to start getting more intense form this point on. Be forewarned that in future chapters it's going to get a little dark. They say the climax occurs when the characters are at their most beat down and desperate, their darkest hour. And I've... taken that to heart.


	6. It has Begun

**Author's Notes:** And back for another round. I wanted to keep this story relatively short, so there are only a few chapters left to go. Things are going to get very intense from this point on, just to warn you. I've been sitting on some of the material coming up in the next couple chapters for a while because I honestly had a moment where I wondered if maybe I was going too far. I decided to go ahead with it anyway, and I'm fully prepared to expect some hate mail in the near future. I may also have to bump the rating up somewhat to compensate as my vision of the story got darker as time went on and the PG-13 rating this story originally had going may not be applicable anymore. I just want to give everyone the heads up so they know what to expect.

Some people are going to get bitchy about this. But I must remind them that this is technically _my_ story. This isn't like in Hollywood with really stupid focus groups who were responsible for butchering some of the best scenes in movies (i.e. Dark Man) and insisting that everything have a romantic sub-plot, no matter how forced or inappropriate. For more information on this concept, please read "If Chins Could Kill" by Bruce Campbell.

Now, all that said, I still recognize the difference between good and bad taste. As much as I like John Waters movies, I'm not that kind of writer. I don't need to give you the explicit details, just tell you what you need to know and let you fill in the blanks for yourself. You imagining the gory details is better than me beating you over the head with them like a sledgehammer. I don't want this to turn into a slasher flick, but I do want to emphasize a very stark contrast between heroism and villainy. I'm deeply influenced by Gothic tradition, and part of that means confronting the heroes with intensely powerful personifications of evil.

So, fairly warned be ye.

**Ronin**

**Chapter 6- It Has Begun...**

Tucker scrambled to think of something. No room to dodge, no place to run or hide, only a split second left to react... So this was what it was like to look death right in the eye. The two ghosts were closing for a final attack. At least it would all be over quick.

Before Tucker had a chance to see his life flash before his eyes, however, a red and silver streak rushed by, ramming the two ghosts and sending them flying into the wall of a nearby building. Valerie! She had turned her hoverboard nose-up and used the flat bottom as a ram. As she righted herself, she pulled out an ecto-rifle and opened fire. The two samurai ghosts barely managed to dodge. "They always want to do things the hard way!" she remarked. She then turned to Tucker, her mask obscuring her features from him. "You okay?"

"I've been worse," Tucker said dismissively. "There's more of them heading down the road, though. Gotta move!"

Valerie tossed an ecto-pistol to Tucker. "Just in case. See if you can get the Fentons down here, too."

"If I know them, they're already on their way." Tucker took a second to make sure he understood the basic operation of the gun. He had to give Vlad credit, the whole thing was very intuitive. A child could operate it. Huh, for some reason the knowledge that Vlad built this made the phrase seem a lot less innocent.

Valerie was already rocketing off down the road, guns blazing. Shaking his head once and thinking that he was losing his mind, Tucker ran to catch up with her. He spotted a ghost hacking at someone door with its katana. "This is where the hours of playing House of the Dead pay off!" Dropping to one knee, Tucker took aim and fired. The purple blast streaked out of the gun, creating a faint glow against everything it passed, and struck the sword out of the ghost's hand.

Not wasting any time, Tucker prepared another shot. The targeting on this gun ruled! And there was no recoil, either. He felt like a real gunslinger with this puppy. The ghost had turned to him and he fired on its face. The blast struck it squarely in the kisser and the samurai reeled back as its mask shattered. "Yeah, baby!"

Tucker's little victory was short-lived. The ghost recovered and faced him. It had no face! Underneath the headdress was nothing but black shadows with two points of red light where eyes should be. As it picked up its sword again, Tucker began to wonder if the phrase "pants-soiling terror" had been coined specifically for moments like this. Not knowing what else to do, he opened fire again.

**-x-**

Jazz was just coming back to the apartment with Erika and her fiancé Katsuhito. The three of them had spent most of the day out sightseeing, the two locals introducing Jazz to some of the finer points of Japanese culture. She was hoping to be able to attend a tea ceremony tomorrow with this nice family they had met at the Shimonzen Dori antique row. It was funny. It was true that the Japanese still had a strong tradition of separatism and racism, but they were still very respectful, polite, and courteous. They were very gracious hosts, that was for certain. It was a strange, but pleasant dichotomy that publicly they were one of the most conservative cultures, but in their own homes they become much more liberal and easy-going. Their entertainment industry was proof enough of that.

Danny and Sam had been going in and out of the apartment all day, so Erika had loaned them her spare key. Even she and Katsuhito saw that the two were made for each other, so why was it taking them so long to figure it out? They had gone off to see the Takigi O-Noh festival, but Jazz figured they'd be back by now. It was almost midnight. "So, how do you enjoy Kyoto so far?" Erika asked. Her English vocabulary was fine, but like most people with no experience in Germanic languages, she had a little trouble with the grammar. It didn't help that English grammar was particularly difficult to deal with as languages go.

"It's wonderful!" Jazz replied. "I wish I had thought to come here sooner."

"Erika and I will try to make reservations somewhere in Pontocho for tomorrow night. You all must dine at one of the kawadoko decks before you leave. We usually only go out to eat around there once in a while." Katsuhito had gone to school at Johns Hopkins University, so his English was much more refined. He actually spoke better English than a lot of Americans did, amusingly enough.

"That's the place along the river right?" Jazz asked rhetorically. "I'm sure Sam would love that."

They opened the door to the apartment and came across a remarkable sight. On the bedding Erika and Katsuhito had set up in the living room lay Danny and Sam. Their Japanese folk clothes were folded neatly beside them while the two of them lay together facing the TV sound asleep. Sam had her back flush against Danny's chest and the two seemed to curl up around each other, looking very comfortable.

Katsuhito put his arms around Erika from behind and the two started speaking playfully in Japanese. Jazz simply smiled and went to put a blanket over the two young lovebirds. The TV was playing some anime or another that took place at what looked like a private school. She switched it off and quietly went to the bathroom to change. She could grill her brother about what he'd dug up in the morning.

**-x-**

Valerie pulled off her mask and wiped the sweat from her brow. The suit was both ventilated and air conditioned, but that didn't stop it from getting warm in there every now and again, especially from a battle like what she had just faced. She and Tucker had taken out a couple of the ghosts, and the rest had made a hasty a retreat. The Fentons showed up after the first minute or so and were still pursuing the fleeing ghosts. They looked like they were heading west, and they were really bookin'. She wasn't entirely sure the Fentons would be able to catch them.

Fortunately, the streets were clear and there was no chance of anyone seeing Valerie without her mask on. She glided over quickly to where she had last seen Tucker. He was sweating worse than her as he sat on the curb trying to catch his breath. She had to give him credit, he went out to help wearing nothing but a pair of cargo pants and carrying some hokey-looking thing that looked like a Fenton invention. Now that she thought about it, it wasn't too far-fetched to imagine that Danny's family had foisted some weapons on his friends at some point or another. "You okay?" she asked as she settled in for a landing.

"I'm still breathing, if that's what you mean." He had several cuts and scrapes on his torso and arms, and he seemed a little shaky. Valerie knew he wasn't the picture of athleticism, but something had really rattled his cage. It wasn't like this was the first time he'd seen ghosts, though.

"You sure you're okay?" she pressed, sitting down beside him. "You look a little pale."

Tucker sighed and looked up at her. "They don't have faces." There was an answer she wasn't expecting. "I shot the mask off one of them and he had no face."

"So he didn't have any features?" Valerie asked in mild confusion.

"No, I mean there really was nothing there! Just two little lights for eyes. Like his headdress was hollow." Tucker shuddered slightly and shook his head. "I tried it out with a couple others, shot their masks off. These things don't have faces."

"That's weird," Valerie muttered.

"I had a few other words in mind," Tucker replied, "but let's go with that."

Valerie hung her head and once more wiped the sweat from her brow as it was beginning to bead up again. She thought for a moment while Tucker checked himself for any more injuries. "Hey... you said these things are looking for Danny Phantom, right?"

"Yeah. In fact, they were yelling and looking for him when they started tonight's attack."

"What happens when they figure out he isn't here?"

Tucker looked up, but was silent. Not a good sign. "That's a good question. I hadn't though of that."

"Clearly," Valerie deadpanned. She thought she caught sight of movement from her eye, but when she glanced over to see what it was there was nothing. The streets were empty. Again, weird.

**-x-**

Sam stirred slightly. She felt sleep slowly leaving her, but she felt very warm and comfortable right now. She really didn't want to end that. It took another minute of debating whether or not she wanted to sleep in when she became aware of the rhythmic pressure on her back like breathing. That revelation was followed by a tightening of arms around her waist and the touch of soft lips on her neck. Danny! She smiled and sank deeper into the embrace.

"I really don't want to have to get up right now," Danny mumbled in a half-awake daze.

"It's not like you have a choice." Sam sat up with Danny in unison to see Jazz leaning forward with her elbows on the back of the couch. She had an infuriatingly smug grin on her face. "You have a busy day ahead of you. And while I'm thinking of it, Tucker will appreciate the pictures I sent him."

"We'll rain horrible fiery death on you for that later," Sam grumbled as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and stood up. "Right now, I need some breakfast."

"Don't spend too long out," Jazz chided as she walked around to sit down on the couch. "Katsuhito just made reservations this morning for a nice dinner in the Pontocho district. I can't remember which place he said it was, but they apparently have a great sushi bar."

"Yeah," Sam drawled. "You did tell them I'm a vegetarian right?"

"You are aware there's vegetarian sushi, right?" Jazz beamed back.

Sam decided not to answer and silently chided herself for not remembering that. She merely gathered up some clothes to get changed into.

"Erika's father is a sushi chef," Jazz explained as if somebody had asked. "She knows a lot about the nuances of the craft just from watching him."

"Jazz," Danny groaned as he stretched out, "it's not that I don't like this place, but shouldn't we be focusing on the... you know?"

"Katsuhito left an hour ago for his clinic and Erika's job at the radio station starts at 6 AM sharp," Jazz explained. "You don't have to dodge around it."

"Fine, but that doesn't answer my question," Danny replied as he slipped on a fresh pair of jeans and a T-shirt while Sam ducked into the bathroom, listening to the conversation through the door, which she left ajar.

"We have to keep up appearances," Jazz explained. "As far as those two are concerned, we're tourists and I'm working on another media study. Neither of them suspect anything about ghosts and we have to keep it that way for the time being."

Danny sighed in resignation. He obviously knew Jazz was right, and there was no point arguing that with her. "We still need to find more leads on Kagyaku."

"I know. What have you found so far?"

"Not much," Sam answered as she finished putting on the last of her clothes. She walked out back into the living room and slipped on her boots. "We checked the Museum of Kyoto yesterday, but they didn't have anything about the Crimson Ghosts."

"I see," Jazz nodded. "Where else were you planning on looking?"

"Sam suggested the Kyoto National Museum," Danny chimed in, "but I don't think that's going to be much better."

Sam sat down on the couch beside Jazz and opened up her purse to begin the process of applying her make-up. "We also should check out The Oni Museum and Fukuchiyama Castle. It's a long-shot, but..."

Jazz stood up and looked out the window. "I'll check out the National Museum. You guys investigate one of the other leads."

Danny finished tying up his shoes and stood up. "Sounds like a plan."

**-x-**

"Hmm... I see. Where is he then?" The news was inconvenient, but nothing that couldn't be dealt with.

"I'm not sure, master. They didn't say where, but they obviously know that Danny Phantom is not in Amity Park anymore."

Silence. This put an unforeseen delay in the plan. No matter. These setbacks were only temporary. After all, he was already dead, it's not as if he didn't have all the time in the world. "Send another wave of samurai to Amity Park. Try to neutralize any resistance they put up. Perhaps by endangering his city, we can smoke him out. If not, then we can capture the two you spoke of and find out what they know."

"Shall we dispatch the fu lions and the kyonshi as well, sir?"

"Yes. Also send a few kappas and oni if possible. I want a three-wave invasion force to descend on Amity Park in the next twenty-four hours. If you find Danny Phantom, bring him back alive."

"Alive? You wanted us to kill him, sir."

"Originally, yes. Suffice it to say that new information has come to light and I do believe this boy could be very useful to me. Bring him back alive. If you can take any hostages as leverage, all the better."

"As you command, my lord."

Kagyaku sat back and steepled his fingers as he surveyed the room that had been his safehouse in life. The centuries had been surprisingly kind. It still made an effective base of operations. Now all he needed was the halfa. If his theory was correct, he would be able to rise once more and fulfill his vow to plunge the world into a paradise of anarchy and chaos. He only needed to be patient...

**-x-**

**Author's Notes:** And there you have it! Short chapter, I know, but I only needed it to be a transition to the next one anyway.

Anyway, a welcome to our villain, and here's to the future.


End file.
